If you’re like many people the word “cryptocurrency” is something that you may have only heard in passing. For gamers and the tech-savvy, it was something that you used for gaming or dark web purchases. Abstract at best….that is, until the last 12 months when it became real in the form of ‘bitcoin”. Early investors are now known as “Bitcoin Millionaires”, a group of visionaries who saw the potential and opted in. This group was followed by people like me, who keep their ears to the ground for new trends in growth industries and realized it lay with digital currency or cryptocurrency. It is like learning about GOOGLE as a start-up. You either saw the potential and took a chance or waited until it became a way of life.
So what is bitcoin?
Simply put it is digital currency or cryptocurrency. However, it is not like the money we are familiar with. Instead of physical, printed currency, it is produced and held digitally. Bitcoin is created by a network of computers that use a certain software, solving mathematical problems. The reason why I (and many others) think it is such a remarkable innovation, is that this digital money is not controlled by any central authority. The Bitcoin network is completely decentralized, the currency itself is produced by a community, to which anyone can freely join.
Another advantage to Bitcoin, is that it can be transferred almost freely and instantly in contrast to a bank transfer, where you pay a significant amount of fees and the completion takes days not seconds.
The reason that everyone is looking at bitcoin as the next tech-like investment is because the digital currency’s price has jumped tenfold this year. Those that invested last month have seen their investment more than double and there is no end in sight. As of Wednesday morning it topped $12,000 per bitcoin at $12,198.57 according to CoinDesk.
Now you’re probably wondering how Bitcoin is created?
Bitcoin is created by the act of “mining”. Yes, just like for gold or oil, bitcoin miners use rigs that specifically mine for Bitcoin.
The members of a mining network provide their computational power for calculations of mathematical problems and for this effort they are rewarded with bitcoins. However, the more members that are mining the more competitive it gets. So the Bitcoin Network purposely makes the solution more and more difficult, otherwise all of the bitcoins would be mined in a couple of minutes. While there are many investment and mining solutions available, Xonic Systems is at the forefront with Global Public Blockchain Technology and and 11 provisional patents. They also offer Bitcoin Mining with the opportunity to own your rig. Still unconvinced of the cryptocurrency phenomena? As of next week Bitcoin gets listed on the futures exchange Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) — a move that will help usher bitcoin into the mainstream.
Bitcoin is created by the act of “mining”. Yes, just like for gold or oil, bitcoin miners use rigs that specifically mine for Bitcoin.
It is never too late to learn, but sometimes you can wait too late to act. Over the holidays you may want to put some time aside to learn about the new trend in Cryptocurrency mining and investments, new terms like Bitcoin, Ethereum, LiteCoin.